TrUE Scholars
Recently I was able to successfully present my project's research results at the 2024 Undergraduate Research Conference (URC) and to be completely honest, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The most intimidating part of the entire event was just the preparation for it, as in the registering, setting up, and making sure I was arriving for the right session on the right day at the right time. Outside of that, the other major intimidating factor was just figuring out what to say and how to say it without stuttering over each word to my anxiety. Luckily, I have wonderful friends from my research lab that I am a part of and they provided me the chance to practice my presentation.
As for my actual presentation, I would say that one of the most challenging parts
of making it was finding the right line between words and images to tell the "story"
of the research. To be frank, there was only one way to get over that hurdle, and
it was round after round of reviews, both peer and professor reviews. It took about
five runs by our project directors and two rounds of peer review, but eventually,
I was able to draft a poster that seemed to hit a nice middle ground between telling
the research and showing it.
One of the most interesting parts of this whole presentation experience is just how
different it was from the other presentations I've conducted throughout my educational
experiences for various classes. Most other class presentations are just that. Presentations,
where you talk AT someone or a group of people, tell them your topic and ideas, then
that's it. Meanwhile, the URC poster presentation is more of a presentation where
you talk WITH someone or a group of people, where they can ask questions and your
goal is less of putting your information out there before leaving it at that and more
of putting your information out there and keeping an open connection with it in the
hopes of creating a dialogue between you and others over your research. I also think
that the whole process of making your poster for presenting and the research done
for it creates more of a personal attachment to your results and a greater sense of
pride in what you did as opposed to doing it just because you need the grade for the
class.